IPOPHL, WIPO to hold Asian Regional Conference in Support of Accelerated Life Sciences Innovation

September 11, 2023

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), in partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), will be holding the Asian Regional Conference in Support of Accelerated Life Sciences Innovation from September 11-15, 2023 in Mandaluyong City.

“The weeklong event will provide a venue to exchange knowledge, share best practices and discuss current trends in fostering a thriving life science innovation ecosystem,” said IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba.

Designed with policy makers, innovators, IP managers, researchers and technology transfer experts in mind, the event aims to promote accelerated development of innovation ecosystems, skills and capacities related to IP management and technology transfer in the life sciences sector in the Asian region. 

The Philippines will be spotlighted for its success in strengthening collaboration among the academe, government and industry in establishing a thriving environment of open innovation and technology transfer in life sciences. This is made possible through the efforts of Innovation and Technology Support Offices (ITSO) in the Philippines. ITSOs are IPOPHL’s academe partners aimed at capacitating innovators and inventors to leverage the patent system.

The Philippine success story will allow academic institutions and R&D centers to look into the IP policy elements they should consider improving to align with their innovation goals. It could also be a model for the Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISC) and Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) in ASEAN whose best practices will also be magnified in the conference.

The conference will also focus on the experiences and challenges of the Philippines vis-a-vis other Asian countries and Europe on search, disclosure requirements and protection of inventions related to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. It will also touch on the current practices and emerging trends in protecting genetic resources, particularly on data search, compliance measures, management of IP and models for voluntary out-licensing schemes.

It will delve deeper into the particular factors that inventors and innovators have to consider when patenting and conducting data searches on pharma-related chemical compounds and biological sequences. 

It will provide participants a deeper understanding of the various IP valuation methods commonly used by the industry, financing risks, innovation-supportive funding models in other countries and alternative dispute resolution services available at WIPO. 

It will also promote the tools developed within the framework of WIPO’s COVID-19 Response Package, such as the Patent Landscape Report on Covid-19 Vaccines and Therapeutics for accelerating research and development of COVID-19 solutions.  

“Local and international experts in the life science innovation ecosystem will provide a comprehensive learning experience which we hope could help our over 100 participants contribute to ensuring the continued balance of  protecting the rights of IP holders and the interest of public health,” Barba said.